Why We Lied to You in Our 100 Creatives

To paraphrase that ray of sunshine Ayn Rand, art is too serious to be taken so seriously. Which is why Devon Lee, who holds the number one spot in our 100 Creatives, is a complete fabrication. We feel the need to confess this in case you were fooled by her intent to create an internet inside the internet, her chinchilla hat line, and her melodramatic refrain: "I feel like 'life' left me a long time ago."

A local artist, who will remain unnamed, dreamed up Lee, her animated gif, and her schizophrenic tumblr page of artwork. What better end for a list cataloging our city's most imaginative and playful minds.

And we'd like to clear up something else: Although they are paired with

numbers, the 100 Creatives appear in random order. It was difficult

enough to get 99 busy Miamians to sit still long enough for a photo and

an interview. The idea of comparing drag queens against haiku poets

would have made our heads explode.

Plus, we'd rather you think of 100

Creatives as a survey of Miami's art scene at a very specific moment in

time rather than a Who's Hot list posted in a high school locker room.

We already know which ones we'd prefer to make out with.

With 100 Creatives wrapped, we now turn our blog-y spotlight to Miamians molding the art scene from behind the scenes. These rarely-seen individuals -- curators, gallerists, festival directors, etc.  -- are busy carving out a place for the 305 in the larger cultural scene. They make us feel connected to national and international dialogues even though it often feels like we're the U.S.'s forgotten, dangling appendage. Most importantly, however, they provide Miami creatives with the real-life hows, whens, and wheres.

Email [email protected] with your suggestions of noteworthy

curators, bookstore owners, gallerists, arts writers, and festival

directors, etc. It's time we gave them some credit for making Miami such an

interesting place to live.

And for those readers who keep suggesting we profile musicians, may we

turn your attention to the New Times music blog, Crossfade. I'm sure

they'll be interested in your neighbor who plays the banjo with his

feet. Here at Cultist HQ, we listen to a steady soundtrack of Keisha and

Beiber, and we can't hear your music pitches over all this twee pop cacophony.

And finally, our complete list of 100 Creatives:

The Creatives:

1. Devon Lee
2. Bert Rodriguez
3. Cristina Lei Rodriguez
4. FriendsWithYou
5. Typoe
6. Wendy Wischer
7. Lucas Leyva
8. Jen Stark
9. Adler Guerrier
10. Susan Lee-Chun
11. Andres and Diego Meza-Valdes
12. Beatriz Monteavaro
13. Timothy Buwalda
14. Edwidge Danticat
15. Juraj Kojs
16. Cat Dove
17. Campbell McGrath
18. Frances Trombly
19. Jose Mertz
20. Emma Trelles
21. Pablo Cano
22. Natasha Tsakos
23. Freegums
24. Aurora Natrix
25. Gean Moreno
26. Yaddyra Peralta
27. Barron Sherer
28. Brigid Baker
29. Daniel Fila
30. McLaine Oberhellmann
31. Fro Rojas
32. Annie Hollingsworth
33. Preston Allen
34. Cristina Molina
35. David Josef Tamargo
36. Jillian Mayer
37. Alfonso Vega
38. Natasha Lopez de Victoria
39. Aholsniffsglue

40. Heather Maloney
41. Jorge Rubiera
42. Elaine Lancaster
43. Nick Duckart
44. Danielle Estefan
45. John Dufresne
46. Monica Lopez de Victoria
47. Bill Bilowit
48. Alette Simmons-Jimenez
49. Tawnie Silva
50. Ginger Bardot
51. Jonathan David Kane
52. Naomi Fisher
53. Rocky Grimes
54. Teresa Barcelo
55. Paul Tei
56. Lee Materazzi